Old Testament

Seeing the Beauty of God – VOTD.08.23.16

Open my eyes so that I can see all the wonderful things in your teachings.Psalm 119:18

God is awesome. He’s superlative beyond anything we can imagine. The Bible proclaims this often; any number of Christian songs have repeated the message from time immemorial. Even otherwise antiseptic doctrinal statements elude to it. Many Christians catch a glimpse of it occasionally when a prayer is answered or in an especially moving Christian meeting.

God’s greatness is a central theme of the Christian faith.

The problem is, much of the time, much of the Christians don’t see His wonder. They don’t see His glory, His beauty…and so, like much of the mainstream around them, they mark time. That’s military marching step where soldiers march in place, moving their legs as if marching, but without stepping forward. It looks pretty cool in a parade, but in real life it gets pretty monotonous.

But even in a parade, if you mark time long enough the whole parade stops…maybe. Or maybe the band behind you just keeps marching forward and runs you over. That’s a pretty intimidating thought. Point is, if God does not open our eyes to behold His glory, we’re marking time in the Christian faith…we’re putting in time and going nowhere. (more…)

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Remaining Glory – VOTD.08.02.16

To the faithful you (God) show yourself faithful,
to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
to the pure you show yourself pure
but to the unfaithful you show yourself a wrestler. 2 Sam 22:26,27

In some ways today’s verse divides us as Christians into two categories: those who bask in God’s presence and those who wrestle in it.

Last time we saw how tempting it is to think that people who seem to have a greater degree of the presence of God in their lives are just particularly pure, but that’s not the case. Not one of us is particularly pure, but some are more aware of God’s presence than others.

God shows Himself to those who fix their eyes on Him. His glory (presence) is on them. The picture they see of Him is of a faithful, righteous and pure God. This God of ours comforts us with words like “I will never leave you nor forsake you. I will never drop you.” God is Loyalty itself. (more…)

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Fading Glory Examples – VOTD.07.26.16

The sweet, satisfying companionship of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him, and He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its [deep, inner] meaning. Psalm 25:14

Last time we saw some common circumstances when God draws us near and His presence becomes overwhelming. Today we’ll look at some common results of this type of experiencing God?

1) The first result of the presence of God is that He increases and we decrease. When you and I come into contact with God our focus is on Him not on ourselves. The more clearly we see Him the more we are so overcome with the glory of Christ we don’t think we’re big, we know we’re small. When someone testifies to an experience with God, listen for who is getting the glory. That’s how you can know how real this experience is. When you and I experience God for real, we don’t walk away with a bloated idea of our own importance. We are seriously humbled. (more…)

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Fading Glory – VOTD.07.25.16

For if what is fading was came with Glory, what remains is even more glorious! 2 Corinthians 3:11

How precious is Your loving kindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light. Psalm 36:7-9

The Glory, or presence of God, comes from Him to us. There are two kinds of glory mentioned that Paul talks about: Fading Glory and Remaining Glory. Simply put, Fading Glory is temporarily and passes away. It it can refer to being temporarily overwhelmed with a sense of God’s nearness. Remaining Glory is more permanent, day in, day out, walking through life in the very presence of God.

Today we’ll look at the first of these two types of experiencing God’s presence. So many times when the glory of Jesus is described it is radiant – a “high” that comes forcefully into our lives and may last hours, or even weeks. Usually, but not always, these experiences of God’s presence take place during certain earthly circumstances: (more…)

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VOTD.06.13.16 The Stability Measure: Maturity

Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.  Genesis 19:14

We’ve been talking about mileposts on the journey of Christian maturity. Milestones like childlike-ness, the highs and lows of life don’t impact the quality of our walk with God, faith, self respect, worship… I need to point out that all these attributes are Christian-character traits. They are things that we as Christians ought to live out. But they aren’t a checklist. They aren’t things that we do to be mature Christians. Just the other way around: they are life-attributes of mature Christians. The difference? One flows out of our efforts, the other flows out of our character. These often take some time to establish. (more…)

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VOTD 06.06.16 The Worship Measure: Maturity

I saw the Lord, high and exalted… And I cried, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”  Isaiah 6:1,5

Last time we saw that our faith in Jesus is the measure of our significance and value and respect, because faith means looking away from ourselves to Jesus and embracing Him as the personification of all that is significant, valued and worthy of honor and respect.

And when that happens, we become Jesus-worshipers.

Focusing on Jesus is all it takes to transform you and me into passionate worshipers. (more…)

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VOTD 05.23.16 Mountaintops & Valleys: Maturity

The man of God came up and told the king of Israel, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because the Arameans think the Lord is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the Lord.’” 1 Kings 20:28

The Arameans thought they had been defeated because Israel’s God was the God of the mountains, which is where they had been fighting. So they devised to fight Israel in the valleys, where Israel’s God was powerless (they thought). But the God of the mountain is still God in the valley (1Kings 20:23-28). (more…)

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VOTD 05.17.16 Passing the Eye Test: Maturity

Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7

Spiritual maturity is not about appearance. There are people who “look the part.” This is sometimes called “passing the eye test.” In basketball, for example, that means being exceptionally tall with big hands. But many who pass the eye test aren’t good basketball players. Some who are shorter are exceptional at the game.

In the same way, when it comes to Christian maturity, there are many Christians who “pass the eye test”—they look the part, but that’s all. Last time we mentioned age, or even the appearance of age. But looks aren’t a very good indication of spiritual maturity. (more…)

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